CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Bad Words - S4-E19

Plot hole: A central plot device in this episode is that there is no six letter word made up of the letters EXVIN, so the murdered man cheats at the word game by playing a word he knew to be inadmissible - exvin, a wine connoisseur who no longer drinks. Since he is supposed to be a stone cold killer player at this word game, don't you think he would have thought of Vixen? Sara Sidle points that word out later - why wouldn't a world champion word game player have figured it out, using a safe, common word and avoiding a possible challenge?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: If you watch the episode (timecode 00:36:20), in the flashback it shows exactly why he did not use vixen. There were 2 spaces between the "x" and the "n" on the board, so Adam played a bluff and used the fake word exvin.

Homebodies - S4-E3

Continuity mistake: When Brass and Grissom are interrogating the stoned nephew, shots of Grissom from the front show him with his head leaning against his right hand and then moving his hand down to the table, then it cuts to a shot from behind and his head is still leaning against his hand. This happens twice during the sequence.

Joel Amos Gordon

Dead Ringer - S4-E20

Continuity mistake: When Nick is showing the burger guy the pictures from the ATM, he holds one up while facing the see-through window. He turns and puts it on the table and it's a completely different picture.

Joel Amos Gordon

Fur and Loathing - S4-E5

Audio problem: When the Ranger is talking about shooting a coyote he says, "I took care of him." The shot is from behind and slightly to the right of the Ranger. When he says this line, his mouth is not moving.

Joel Amos Gordon

Suckers - S4-E13

Factual error: Grissom sees an information card for a 17th century suit of Japanese armour (just the card, not the suit itself), and immediately deduces that the suit must actually be from the 19th century, because the Japanese military was formed in the 1860s. That military was westernised, and did not wear armour. There was nothing on the card that falsely referred to that military as being established earlier, or indicated that the suit belonged to it. There was a reference to the "military class", but that was historically correct, and meant the Samurai.

J I Cohen

Invisible Evidence - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: When Catherine tells Grisson she liked the tough act (while listening to the guy testify) he said too much, she said not enough. Then he glances over at her. The guy is talking, which indicates a continuous line, even though the shot changes, but Grissom is not looking at Catherine during the shot change, instead he's got his head leaning against the glass.

Joel Amos Gordon

Paper or Plastic - S4-E14

Revealing mistake: In the scene where the CSI team first arrive at the crime scene and Grissom is taking photos, the first photo he takes, you can see that the victim's eyelids flutter a bit and his belly is seen contracting, a clear sign of breathing.

Bad Words - S4-E19

Other mistake: In the flashback that shows Adam Brenner playing his opponent using the word "Exvin", we can see that the X is also used in "Juxtapose". When the opponent adds an S to "Exvin", he is challenged and made to take back his tiles. However, the X would remain where it is because it is a part of another word. Since the opponent plays a word using an X later in the game ("Loxodrome"), we know that he must have taken back the X as well. However, that cannot be the case as then "Juxtapose" would not be able to stand without the X. He couldn't play it as part of "Exvin" due to the existence of the word Antothenics underneath Juxtapose.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I think they were implying that he played a second ex and that's what prompted them to look to see which tiles were missing from the suspects game. Since there were two x's used in the game and there's only X in each set it implies they thought someone was bringing tiles in from another set, and then they looked at the suspect set to see if any tiles were missing.

Jackpot - S4-E6

Continuity mistake: When Grissom's car window is broken in the first shot where you first see the break there is hardly any glass left in the frame and yet when he is at the gas station there is an almost perfect circle of broken glass and a lot more in the frame.

Coming of Rage - S4-E10

Other mistake: This episode has four teenagers beat a contemporary to death with hammers, following a practice session with a pile of water melons. The boy is beaten to death sometime during the weekend, - probably on the Saturday.Prior to that is the practice session with the melons, which must be the Friday evening at the latest. The room with the melons is searched on a school day, Monday at the earliest. Yet the melons, in all that Nevada heat after lying around for three days, are still fresh looking, and there are no flies or other insects swarming over the juicy remains.

Homebodies - S4-E3

Plot hole: Catherine is picking up the gun in the backyard. It is an unfamiliar weapon. She picks it up by using the loop around the trigger and pointing it towards herself. She then checks the clip, but never checks the chamber.

Dead Ringer - S4-E20

Audio problem: When Sarah is interrogating the police woman, there are some shots from the left side of the woman when she is speaking and her mouth/jaw movement do not match the words that she is saying.

Joel Amos Gordon

Suckers - S4-E13

Factual error: They talk about the type of tubes used in HIV tests. There are no special tubes specific for HIV testing alone. It is one generic tube that can be used for a multitude of tests including HIV. It did not seem as though Greg knew that she had gone for HIV testing before he ran the tests, so he should not have concluded that it was the type of tube used for HIV testing, only Catherine or Warrick should have made that connection.

Nikki

Assume Nothing (1) - S4-E1

Continuity mistake: When Grisson gets on the vibrating bed, in the close up shots he is sitting with his neck even to the top of the headboard and no pillow showing. In the wide-angle shot, he's hunched down lower with a lot of the pillow showing above his shoulders.

Joel Amos Gordon

Invisible Evidence - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: When Brown talks to David, David pulls out a pelvis from a vat of acid, saying he's cleaning it. In one shot the pelvis is hanging off the lower of the tongs, but in the next shot it's clamped between the tongs. This series of shots occurs a couple times during the conversation.

Joel Amos Gordon

Coming of Rage - S4-E10

Continuity mistake: Nick counts the bullet holes in the rabbit sign used for target practice and says there are only 9 holes. It shows a flashback to the guy shooting and he shoots a tenth hole in the sign near the rabbit's right arm. This hole is not shown on the sign Nick looks at.

Joel Amos Gordon

Turn of the Screws - S4-E21

Other mistake: When the CSIs arrive to take in the accident scene from the Pharoah's Fury rollercoaster, the victims are covered in associated wounds and blood, from such a derailing accident. Yet no brain matter seen anywhere. When in a prior take, two of the rail cars had crashed face down into parked cars and pavement. While two other victims were thrown from railcars while in midair.

eaglegrad16

More quotes from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
More trivia for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Suckers - S4-E13

Question: After finding out that Ty was committing insurance fraud, why did Grissom walk away instead of arresting him?

Answer: He doesn't have the authority to arrest him - when anyone is arrested in the show, a police officer does it. Also he tells Ty that he is going to be submitting his case findings to Ty's insurance company, who would no doubt contact the IRS, who then would have him arrested for fraud etc.

More questions & answers from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.